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CAPTAIN
GEORGE FREDERICK READ
Supposedly the son of George, Prince of Wales and
Maria Fitzherbert he was born on 29 Sep 1788 in
London
,
England
. He died on 23 Jul 1860 in "Leyburn",
Newtown
,
Tasmania
. He was buried on 26 July1860 in St David's Cemetery,
Hobart
,
Tasmania
. He married Margaret Terry on 24 Nov 1824 in St David's Cathedral.
Australian Dictionary of Biography.
READ,GEORGE FREDERICK (1788-1860),
merchant, settler and banker, was born on 29 September 1788 in
London
.He went to sea when 11 and was
probably engaged in the East India Co.'s maritime service until 1808.Later he recorded in his journal that he visited the Derwent settlement
that year and again in 1812, but was irritated by having his cargo commandeered
and his crew placed on rations.He
is believed to have brought the first merchant vessel through Torres Strait, and
he continued to trade between
Hobart
Town
,
Sydney
,
Batavia
,
Calcutta
and
China
.
In May 1814 as master and part-owner
of the "Amelia", a Brig built in
Bombay
and registered in
Calcutta
of some 80 tons, 2 guns and a crew of 20, he brought tea, sugar, rum and
tobacco from
Calcutta
to
Sydney
and returned with wine and whale oil.When
the "Amelia returned to
Sydney
from
Calcutta
in 1815 it was under the command of Capt. Sam. Shaw. It is recorded in the Rev.
Knopwood's Diary of June 1815 that the "Lynx" arrived in
Hobart
from
Sydney
carrying flour and horses.In
1816-18 he made voyages between
Sydney
, the Derwent,
Batavia
and
Calcutta
in his brig "Lynx".By
July 1818 the "Lynx" was under the command of Capt. Siddins who
eventually purchased the vessel.In
1816 he was granted a town allotment in
Sydney
and a grant of 500 acres in the country, but he suffered from asthma and in
June 1818 moved to
Hobart
in the brig "Sophia" which arrived on July 11 under the command of
Capt. James Kelly. His wife and son arrived in the "Jupiter" on 11th
October that year under the command of Capt. Ainsworth.
He transferred his merchant
establishment there and later formed partnerships with W.A. Bethune and Charles
McLachlan.In 1819 he was granted
800 acres at
Redlands
, Plenty, and four government servants.In
1822 he built a stone warehouse on Hunter's
Island
facing Sullivan's Cove (the old wharf) and was appointed a magistrate.He was one of the original proprietors of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land
and its managing director from 1827 to 1849, living for some time in a
'comfortably fixed' villa on the Derwent.In
1829 he resumed the former business of Read & Bethune, and from then until
1852 acted as agent for John Ingle.
He took a very considerable part in
the development of the young colony, not least in its maritime industries, was
one of the most important men in its formative years and contributed greatly to
the community's welfare.He had
interests in several ships trading to
India
,
China
and the
Philippines
, in which his third son, Henry (1828-1894), made several voyages as supercargo,
and his ships took part in sealing and whaling.He was a good practical farmer, grew fine wheat, made bricks and helped
to
establish the salmon ponds at
Redlands
.He had other properties: Ivanhoe
and Kinvarra, in the Plenty-New Norfolk district, Seton near
Richmond
, and Thornhill near Sorell.He also
had a three-storied stone tea-warehouse in
Salamanca Place
,
Hobart
, other
Hobart
town property, and city sections bought at
Melbourne
's first land sale.He was
versatile, enterprising and far-sighted.Lieut-Governor
Sorell spoke highly of him, made him an assessor in the Lieut-Governor's Court
and in 1822appointed him a
magistrate; however, he fell out with Lieut-Governor Arthur, protested against
licencing the press, and was removed
from the magistracy.In 1816 at St Philip's
Sydney
, he married Elizabeth Driver; they had one son, G.F. Read junior (1817-
1854), a pioneer at Port Phillip, and
two d
au
ghters.His wife died on 19 August
1821, and on 24 November 1824 at St David's
Hobart
, he married Margaret (1800-1889), d
au
ghter of John Terry, a flour-miller of New Norfolk.By his second marriage he had six sons and four d
au
ghters.He died at his home,
Leyburne, New Town, on 23 July 1860.
Several of his letters to John Ingle
were published under the title "Tasmanian Letters 1824-1852 (
Christchurch
, 1945).
Family legend has it that George was
the son of George IV & Mrs Fitzherbert, but no proof has ever been found.On the contrary, when my grandmother Lilly Muriel Smith and her twin,
Pearl, were in
London
, they found that pages had been torn out of every document they investigated.
Latterly, James Moss of
Sydney
discovered that Elizabeth Gore's father had been coachman to the governess of
the baby George IV.
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